Birther issue has its roots with Democrats

THE IDEA that Barack Obama wasn’t born in the United States and is therefore an illegitimate president — an idea thoroughly discredited after Obama released his long-form birth certificate last year — was mainlined into the femoral artery of the presidential campaign on Tuesday, as Mitt Romney prepared for his high-profile fund-raiser in Las Vegas with Donald Trump. Trump is the loudest, brashest, most insistent exponent of “birtherism,” and Romney’s public embrace of him has brought it roaring back.

“Is it the most important thing?” Trump wondered on CNBC Tuesday. “In a way it is, because you’re not allowed to be president if you’re not born in the country.”